Various types of heated garments have been suggested in the past. Conventional winter garments can keep the wearer warm because they are capable of slowing down the heat transfer between the cold atmosphere and the wearer's body. Such garments cannot produce heat, however some conventional electrically heated garments are tends to be bulky, heavy and inflexible, thus cumbersome and uncomfortable to wear. It is no surprise that such devices have not been incorporated into everyday clothing. Such heating devices remain uncomfortable to wear on a regular basis and are prone to fatigue as the heating elements are repeatedly folded, stretched or twisted in the ordinary course of wear and tear.
There is therefore a need exists in the garment industries to provide a electrically heating device capable of being incorporated into various manufactured dress articles such as jackets, shirts, blankets, etc, that is of high performance having remotely controllable interface to set and regulate thermostat temperature, less bulk, light weight, increased flexibility, extended heat generation duration, increased durability and ease of support when compared to the prior art. Such a heating apparatus would preferably also be capable of being designed, retrofitted and manufactured in a standardized manner.
Numerous innovations for garment heating device have been provided in the prior art as described below. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific purposes to which they address, however, they differ from the present invention.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,963,055, issued on 8 Nov. 2005, to Rock et al., teaches a electric resistance heating/warming composite fabric articles have a fabric layer having a first surface and an opposite, second surface, and an electric resistance heating/warming element in the form of a conductive yarn mounted upon first surface of the fabric layer, e.g. in embroidery stitching, and adapted to generate heating/warming when connected to a power source. A barrier layer may be positioned, for example, at least adjacent to the first or second surface of the fabric layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,341, issued on 14 Jan. 1992, to Rowe, teaches a heated comfort product such as an electrical blanket having an elongate electrical resistance element is connected in a particular manner to an AC power line by connecting the ends of conductors used in the element at a common end to respective AC power lines so as to achieve reduced or non-detectable electromagnetic and/or electrostatic radiating fields from the comfort product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,334, issued on 7 Apr. 1987, to Shinichi Endo et al., teaches a bed warmer such as an electric blanket initially subject to a preparatory high temperature set value, the supply of power to a heater is controlled such that a warmer temperature is automatically recovered to a preset temperature value provided by a temperature setter from the preparatory high temperature set value when a bodily temperature detector detects that the user has goes to bed.
US Pub. No. 2008/0223844, published on 18 Sep. 2008, to Cronn, teaches a heating apparatus comprising a textile based heating element, a power source and related components. The heating apparatus can be designed, retrofitted or manufactured into articles of clothing or equipment such as gloves, vests, jackets, shirts, pants, socks, insoles, mitts, hand warmers, seats and other common articles. A textile based heating element comprises one or more conductive wires stitched into a fabric carrier. Various conductive wire configurations can desirably adjust the resistance of the textile based heating element thereof. Methods of manufacture and use are disclosed in conjunction with the heating apparatus.
Major failures have been experienced by large outdoor clothing companies who have attempted to deploy wearable heating systems in outerwear. These failures related to the use of conduits embedded in the fabric to heat specific portions of a garment, and those conduits were then joined in a network of heating areas within the garment using wires. This created connection points within the network. Those connection points, between the wires and the heating conduits within the network, overheated and burned, resulting in total failures of the product lines, hazards to the public, and major recalls by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Poor engineering, and a lack of testing of these interconnection points for heat output while the system was operating was the cause of these failures. In one instance, the product was recalled when it burned because the conduit strands were placed too close together in the fabric, thereby generating too much heat. Poor engineering and lack of testing were to blame for that failure as well. The invention solves these issues by eliminating these interconnection points, and appropriately spacing resistors within fabric to prevent burning. The following is a list of these recalls, and which company(s) each recall refers to: http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2010/Ardica-Recalls-Heated-Jackets-and-Vests-Due-to-Burn-Hazard/ CPSC Recall #10-186 Ardica, Mountain Hardware Radiance Jackets, Refugium Jackets, and Sitka Dutch Oven Vests; http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2013/Columbia-Sportswear-Recalls-Seven-Models-of-Heated-Jackets/ CPSC Recall #13-104 Columbia Sportswear Omni-Heat heated jackets; http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2013/Gerbings-Recalls-Heated-Jacket-Liners/ CPSC Recall #13-171 Gerbing Heated Jacket Liner.
It is apparent now that numerous innovations for electrically heating garments have been provided in the prior art that are adequate for various purposes. Furthermore, even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific purposes to which they address, accordingly, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described. Thus a unitary garment heating device and in particular, the garment device includes a plurality of fabric heating nodes connected by a unitary fabric heating conduit to generate uniform heat throughout a garment and which can be controlled by a remote communication device is needed.